Miao Jiang Xian Gong Underground Cave.
In front of a rock crevice less than a meter wide, I shone my flashlight on the scattered pebbles on the ground, squatted down and examined them carefully: "These pebbles on the ground do not match the marks, which means that someone has been here. This crevice ahead is a path."
"Someone has definitely tampered with this place."
Jiang Man shone her flashlight into the crack and pointed to several extremely thin threads, saying, "Look at these threads, they look a lot like spider webs. If someone had walked through here before, these spider webs should have been destroyed."
Lin Que said dismissively, "Maybe there were little spiders here all along! Their webs were destroyed, and they rebuilt them after people left, which is why there are only a few lines."
"No! There are two types of spiders. Hunting spiders have no fixed habitat and roam around hunting without weaving webs. Only sedentary spiders weave webs. Sedentary spiders weave webs for two main reasons: first, to have a place to live, which can protect them; and second, to use the web to catch prey, which is their primary means of hunting."
Jiang Manyong shook her head and said, "Although this cave fits the spider's habit of spinning webs in caves, we haven't found any insects here along the way, and our lights haven't attracted any flying insects either. Although we can't be sure there are no insects around, their numbers must be pitifully small. Spiders can't satisfy their hunting needs by spinning webs in such a place, so I think this is very likely a Gu poison left by the people of Ping'an Village."
The monkey interjected, "Miss Jiang, your analysis isn't right! The people from Ping'an Village entered before Duan Jinyan and his group. If they had set traps on the road they were on for disaster relief, Duan Jinyan and his group should have been the ones to fall into them. How come it was Za Na's turn?"
Hearing their discussion, I stood up and said, "I'm more inclined to believe Jiang Man's analysis. The marks on the ground indicate that someone has definitely crossed this crevice, but it might not be the only way forward! The people of Ping'an Village are cunning and treacherous, making them difficult to guard against. Now that we know they've come to this place, we must be careful! If we knowingly fall into their trap, we'll be utterly humiliated!"
Although the monkey didn't object to what I said, it looked at me with some speechlessness: "Just because of these few spider silk-like things, do we have to choose to take a detour?"
"This area is full of rift valleys, and the terrain is extremely complex. Searching for other routes would not only be a waste of time, but also potentially unsafe. Since we've found the right path, we should give it a try!"
As I spoke, I took out a carbon fiber composite tube from my travel bag, connected it to a length of about 1.5 meters, and stretched it out to break off a spider silk thread in front of it.
"Sizzle!"
The moment the spider silk snapped, a stream of green liquid sprayed directly from the nearby rock crevice onto the opposite wall, creating white foam.
Jiang Man saw the foam on the wall and shone her flashlight into the crevice opposite: "It's corrosive venom. This really is something that Ping'an Village set up!"
I waited for about ten seconds and saw the foam on the wall disappear. I picked up a stone from the ground and said, "This venom is corrosive, but it can't corrode stone. Everyone pick up a stone and move forward in an orderly manner. When you encounter a place where a spider is spraying venom, block it and let the people behind pass. Move in a treadle pattern."
Jiang Man picked up a stone and then added, "We don't know what triggers these poisonous insects to spray venom. Everyone must remain quiet and move gently while we are moving! In addition to being corrosive, we don't know if this venom is poisonous or not, so please try not to get it on your body."
After everyone lined up, I took a rock and went over to block the crack in the rock that had just sprayed venom. The others followed behind me and began to slowly walk out.
After we carefully crossed the rift valley, the scenery outside changed dramatically.
The road we traveled along was entirely made up of natural caves. Even the giant statues we saw were built into the mountainside. Apart from the poisonous insects and ferocious beasts in the underground river, we didn't encounter anything else.
After we emerged from the crevice, we found ourselves in another cave, but the first thing we saw was a smooth passageway and two rows of enormous stone carvings.
Each of these stone sculptures is over three meters tall and forms a circular stone pillar. However, judging from the patterns on them, these stone pillars should be human-shaped sculptures with hands and feet carved on them. The faces are the same as the ones we saw on the cliff outside, with triangular eyes, upturned noses, and mouths that stretch to the ears, which makes people feel disgusted.
"Wow! The aesthetic sense of the ancients was really something! This statue is definitely at a kindergarten level! I used to think that the oil paintings by those great foreign painters were a mess and I couldn't understand them, but the statues here look even more abstract than those oil paintings!"
The monkey shone its flashlight on the stone statue in front of it and couldn't help but marvel: "My lord, I've been to several large tombs and seen ugly tomb guardians before, but this is the first time I've seen one that looks so unpleasant! How could these guys have such ugly faces?"
Jiang Man shone her flashlight around the cave and said to me, "The facial expressions of these statues are exactly the same as the ones we saw on the cliff outside. They feel like some kind of totem! Although there are no murals or written records in this cave, these ugly-faced statues are all built very tall, which means they were clearly worshipped!"
The monkey looked at us and said, "Isn't it said that the Miao Jiang Fairy Palace has a long history? Is it possible that primitive people lived here? Like the Upper Cave Man, Niushan Man, and Yuanmou Man, they were all primitive people who had not fully evolved, which is why their statues are so ugly?"
"That's absolutely impossible. The primitive people you mentioned, the Upper Cave Man lived 700,000 years ago, the Niushan Man lived 300,000 years ago, and the Yuanmou Man lived 1.7 million years ago. Take the Upper Cave Man as an example. They could only engage in simple fishing and hunting. They were Homo sapiens from the Stone Age. Their lifestyle was extremely primitive. Let alone building such a large tomb, they didn't even know how to build a house. They could only live in caves and sew simple clothes from animal skins. They simply didn't have the ability to build such a tomb."
I paused for a moment: "Although we can't find any information about the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, judging from the carving techniques of these stone carvings, they must be from a civilization that has existed since the Neolithic period. They have nothing to do with the primitive people you mentioned."
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